lmwright - The public spaces of the house are open to one another in this open plan. The Dining Space is tucked between the Kitchen (beyond the island) and the Family Space. All of these spaces open to the Lanai and are provided with views of the rear yard, Mission Bay and the foothills beyond.

Hi Susan - The clients wanted a "real" wood-burning fireplace without the expansion noise characteristic of prefabricated metal fireplaces. We used a modular masonry firebox/chimney and framed it with a metal.

I'm very curious about this fireplace design. What are the "cons" of doing this? I like that it is low, long versus more vertical. We have a 12 X 17 office library and my husband wants to put a fireplace in it. If the fireplace is low (like this one).....are there issues to address with what goes above it (TV, painting, bookcases, etc.)?? Thank you!

First thing to do is hire a good local architect who can help you visualize your options, of which you have many. The chimney / recess for the television issue isn't really what should drive the design. It should really be based on your vision for the entire room.

One thing to consider in the long run is that one can generally convert from wood to gas, but not the other way (unless you are changing back to wood from gas). The technology involved when installing a solid fuel burning fireplaces is also acceptable for gas products, but not vice versa.

Now that modern fireplaces with glass or stones as burner media are popular, we have people ask us all the time if they can change out the artificial logs in their gas fireplace to something more modern. The answer is "NO".

But if you have a masonry woodburning fireplace with a working chimney, you may change over to a gas burner for convenience. I am not one to talk you into gas, because I love everything about wood, but even I don't have a wood burning fireplace at home, because it doesn't suit my current lifestyle, which is extremely busy. ; )

The Montegrappa inserts are not available in the US (yet), but the STUV inserts are. None of the woodstove/insert types from either of those companies are very horizontal like the photo at the top, and many require that they are installed into a masonry fireplace.

I agree with @bud_dietrich - come up with your design first, and then see how the elements work together. This is going to sound like heresy on houzz.com, but architects and designers generally aren't very familiar with fireplace technology, so get a National Fireplace Institute certified hearth professional involved early on ( http://www.nficertified.org/pages_consumers/consumers-1.html ). We get plans every day with fireplaces that can't be built because the technology does not exist, or because they defy the laws of physics, or because the building codes won't allow it.

Complement a lengthy room with wide accessories. Long, narrow rooms ultimately create a lot of spacious walls, so fill them with wide artwork and double-wide fireplaces. Choose artwork in a bold color to create a focal point.
Anyone catch the ghost on the stairs?

When the chairs are all the same, the grouping has cohesion and is seen as a unit. This seating area adjacent to the kitchen is a nice place to enjoy a glass of wine and snacks. The fireplace makes it extra cozy.

Nice Nice brown chairs, and I like matching the carpet to the dark chairs. Also like size of round table (couldn't be any smaller).
For my space square arrangement may not work (space too narrow), but could do more of a rectangle.